Have I Ever Been In Her Shoes?

I’m not a huge fan of Mitt Romney, so this is not in support of or an endorsement, but yes, as a matter of fact I have been in her shoes. After 20 years at a Chrysler dealer and at age 61, I found myself unemployed in an area with 15% unemployment when the White House helped compile of a list of 789 Chrysler dealers to have their franchises yanked, including some very profitable ones.

Should I feel pleased this young lady feels so good about saving her ass on the backs of taxpayers while hundreds of thousands of the rest of us were thrown out of work?

Maybe she needs to look at the real world.

Unemployment was 7.8% when Obama assumed office. Within a few months it exceeded 10% and only in the last couple of months dropped slightly below 9%.

Our National Debt has increased by over $5 Trillion (that’s $5,000,000,000,000) in just the 3 years Obama has been in office, currently sitting now at about $15,451,060,345,845 and change and increasing as you read. Each citizen shares $49,474.64 of the debt.

America had an AAA credit rating and now, we have been downgraded to an AA credit rating.

We see unrest in the streets rivaling that of the 1960’s with loosely labeled “Occupiers” marching, chanting and taking over empty homes, seizing public property and demanding more debt so they can have “free” stuff given to them.

The price of a gallon of gas was about $1.61 when Obama took office. Today, we see the price of a gallon of gas is exceeding $4.00 a gallon in many areas and climbing. And, not a whimper from those Democrats who were lambasting President Bush over the price of gasoline.

In answer to Moveon.org, I have been in the young ladies shoes. In fact, the whole country has been in and remains in the predicament she says she was in, except maybe for the Obama’s who seem to enjoy frequent multi-million dollar vacations as often as they can.

Of the stimulus bailout she boasts about saving her, Obama’s former auto czar Steven Rattner wrote in his book ‘Overhaul,’ “about $19.4 billion the government put into GM before the 2009 bankruptcy is ‘lost money’.”

He also stated, “Taxpayers will lose about $14 billion on the $82 billion investment to restructure General Motors, Chrysler and Ally Financial” here

14 Comments to “Have I Ever Been In Her Shoes?”

My wife was “in her shoes” … but having been out of the workforce for 2 years caring for elderly parents, then getting a new job and being laid off after only 4 months in a broad company downsizing, she did not qualify for unemployment “insurance.”

She did all the usual job searching work — joining an “over 40” program sponsored through the local unemployment office. She met several dozen other out-of-workers — almost all receiving unemployment benefits. Each meeting, members would describe their job searches — but none would accept any job that paid less than their previous job, as it would reduce the size of their unemployment checks, should the new job not “work out.”

My wife (not getting “benefits”) accepted a job with an elder-care service at less than half her previous salary as a business office manager. (Amazing what incentives there are when there’s no government subsidy of unemployment.)

As for Detroit — yes, General Motors and Chrysler should have gone through bankruptcy. It would have allowed much better clearing of high costs and built in overhead (though the auto-workers unions wouldn’t have liked it). As it is, both Chrysler and General Motors will probably eventually face bankruptcy yet again, as they were not reorganized into the most efficient possible size. Taxpayers are likely to be asked for further bail-outs. Hopefully, there will be an administration in power that says “no.”

Zap, if you failed to comprehend, I was an employee, not an employer, in an independently owned Chrysler Dealer that was one of 789 whose franchises were pulled, closing many of the independently own businesses that employed hundreds of thousands of people.

The Obamas have done nothing but vacation since they got into the White House. They’re like Welfare recipients in public housing – they move in, trash the place, party hardy, and eventually get thrown out.

Pete, I too have friends that are in the same boat as your wife, thought they are probably about a decade younger and are hungry for any thing including scraping mcD grills if that is all they can find while looking for better.

And my friends also have masters degrees and can’t find a lick of work. Two in particular are janitors and are taking ANY job they can find.

Anyone who’s doing IT consulting, can also be found in the same predicament as what Lew was offering.

The only people I have NO sympathy for are the ones who just sit idly on government UI and do nothing to attempt to find work or piddle around until their number is called and they stop receiving the checks on the economic titantic…..

The numbers in the Union Leader article (about the Chrysler bailout) you link to are striking: 4 plants and 749 dealerships closed, and tens of thousand of jobs lost–and that cost us nearly $2 billion.

So is their conclusion: “It was a bailout of choice in which the government transferred wealth from the taxpayers to the unions, which now own 46 percent of the company. It was a payoff for a major Democratic constituency, done with your money. . . .”

The Elitist GOP leadership has realized that Romney is too RINO to “fly”, so they’ve thrown their hands up into the air and are figuring that Santorum can’t beat Obama. They think Santorum’s defeat will allow them to get rid of the Conservatives in the party.